DOREEN CALDERON – Improv

My freshman year at conservatory required a full year of Spolin – no scene work until Viola was experienced and understood! I didn’t appreciate it until much later, of course. After university, I enrolled at the Second City Training Center, where my Fifth Level class was directed by Mick Napier. I learned how to create a show (sketches, songs and improv), and formed the group, Some Have Hair. We performed new shows every month in front of sold out houses on the north side of Chicago. Three out of the four of us decided to study at ImprovOlympic and mastered the art of Long Form. While performing on the house team, Mr. Blonde (coached by Matt Besser), Second City came calling. I was hired into the touring company, playing with many, now famous, actors. It was the nineties, and anybody who is anybody was playing in Chicago at that time. I was surrounded by brilliant people. I was also invited to be a part of the first year of Boom Chicago in Amsterdam. A few months later, I took on the lead role of the first UCB full length play, Jacked: A Virtual Love Story. My new iO team, Victor Laszlo was playing at small venues around Chicago, directed by Todd Stashwick.

Currently, I am a proud member of the nation’s first Asian-based improv group, Cold Tofu, in Los Angeles.